Base metals futures prices on the London Metal Exchange fell again on Tuesday November 6 while uncertainty continued about the outcome of the midterm elections in the United States and that country’s trade relations with China. Read more in our live futures report.
Here are how prices looked at the close of trading:
Brazilian flat and long steelmaker Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) has been negotiating with slab producers to build up stocks before one of its own blast furnaces stops production next June, a source close to CSN said.
Glencore’s Katanga Mining will temporarily stop selling cobalt from its Kamoto Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after finding excessive levels of uranium in the cobalt hydroxide produced there, the company said. Less than 1,500 tonnes of finished cobalt are affected.
Comex copper prices staged a modest recovery in the US due to a softening dollar and speculative buying. The copper price for December settlement on the Comex division of Nymex recovered by 0.35 cents to $2.7595 per lb.
The price for rebar imported into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) fell in the week to Tuesday, sources told Fastmarkets. Local producers were still offering rebar at 2,016 dirhams ($549) per tonne ex-works, unchanged, this week. Meanwhile, rebar from Oman was on offer in the UAE at $525 per tonne cfr on a theoretical weight basis, and from Turkey at $510 per tonne cfr, on the same basis.
A major zinc producer has considered increasing the 2019 refined zinc premium for Chinese customers by up to $20 per tonne, citing expected tightness in Southeast Asia in the first half of next year. That’s one of 10 things we learned from the 21st International Lead & Zinc Conference last week in Baoji, Shaanxi province, in China.
Iron ore exports from Port Hedland in Western Australia fell year on year and month on month in October, leading to tighter supplies of Australian material in the seaborne market and pushing prices above $75 per tonne cfr China.
